SynopsisHazel and the others start to plan the
rescue of Primrose and Blackavar from Efrafa. This leads to friction
between the cautious Hazel, and the carefree Bigwig. Meanwhile General Woundwort
becomes increasingly desperate to find the outsiders.

Guest
VoicesJohn Hurt -
WoundwortStephen Gately - Blackavar

Favourite
Quote"I'll make you scream for the Black Rabbit of Inlé, Primrose, but
he'll be a long time coming!" - Vervain

Personal
ReviewThe episode this week returns to the Efrafan storyline, and starts
off a 2-part adventure. Thankfully, the producers didn't decide to place a
completely unrelated episode in the middle either.

I have to say, I
loved this episode. The development of the Efrafan characters and Woundwort's
Regime is wonderful. We see the way Vervain bullies the other rabbits, as is his
right as Captain of Owsla. In my heavily biased opinion, This does lead to the
best part of the episode actually; Vervain trying to cause as much suffering for
Primrose as possible. He shouts at her for not showing him any respect.
Indeed, this leads to some of his best lines of the series, such as 'I'll make
you scream for the Black Rabbit of Inlé, Primrose'. Later he also explains
in some detail how to crush the spirit of the rabbits, describing how 'Their
Eyes Go Dull. Their Ears sag. They lose the Spring in their Step!'. Nothing
could paint a more vivid picture of life in Efrafa. To see Primrose suffering so
much should of course create sympathy within the audience, however the effect
was lost on me. I just sit there egging on Vervain to kill
her.

Sadly (or luckily,
depending upon your point of view), Vervain never does get to hit her, as
Campion keeps interrupting. This gives us an early insight into how Campion is
different to the others; how he believes the Oswla should not be abusing their
power over the lesser rabbits. These traits of his character, will play a
vital part later in the series. Despite Vervain's vicious approach, this episode
is also used to depict just how weak he really is. At the first sniff of danger
from a fox, he runs away. Sometimes, you have to wonder how he ever
became Captain of Owsla in the first place. Another of Vervain's lines
which stood out to me was where he comments upon the outsider's gull, saying
"and My Best Friend is a Weasel". Could there actually be some deep meaning to
that, as Vervain's sly, devious and... well... weasely nature is fast becoming
apparent.

Of course, the Watership
Characters have their part to play too. As usual, there's some great humour from
Hawkbit. The episode actually opens with him being the misfortunate stepping
stone for the others in an Owsla training exercise. You just have to love those
close up shots of his facial expression! There's also an excellent
scene later on, where Hazel asks who will help him rescue Primrose. When
Dandelion volunteers, Hawkbit can be heard to mutter 'You're not impressing
anyone you know'. Hawkbit then ends up being chosen to go instead of
Dandelion.

The other main character
aspect is between Hazel and Bigwig. Throughout the episode the writers build up
the friction between the rabbits' two conflicting opinions. There's
Hazel with his cautious approach, compared to Bigwig with his 'Act first, think
later' approach. The climax of this is where Bigwig storms off towards Efrafa in
a huff. This is used brilliantly by the writers, as they close the first part
with Bigwig joining Efrafa. Of course, this is all part of the plan, but that
isn't revealed until the next part, creating some brilliant
suspense.

Nothing much wrong with this episode to be honest. There were a
few instances which made the Efrafans look pretty pathetic though, such as the
lack of anyone noticing the escape tunnel that has been dug. There's also a
scene where Primrose and Blackavar are practically shouting about how they will
escape, and find Hazel's warren, yet the Efrafan guard doesn't seem to pick
up on any of this, only managing the words 'No Talking!'. Come on, This isn't
the sort or poor military precision we expect from Efrafa!

Rating (Out of 6) - Good

A
high score, but for the wrong reasons I suspect. The best bit of the episode is
seeing Primrose suffer at the paws of Vervain. Mwah ha haaa!